The Village Hall - The Watson Institute

The Watson Institute Stabilisation Engineering project (WISE)

The beautiful Watson Institute, which acts as Castle Carrock's village hall, is 121 years old in 2018. The time has come to undertake some serious repairwork during 2019. Please help us to raise the money required to keep this beautiful building standing. We have lots of plans coming together but we need all hands to the pump.

History

The Watson Institute (also known as the Watson Hall or Village Hall) was erected in 1897 at a cost of £1,500 by James Proctor Watson, Esq. It was given to the village as a public hall, free library and reading room, supplied with 700 books. Papers and periodicals were also supplied by Lady Carlisle.

JP Watson was the son of John Watson who, in his youth, travelled to India with his brother William. They later returned to Cumbria with their fortunes. In 1875 William purchased Holme Eden, the former Dixon mansion at Warwick Bridge and John built Gelt Hall as his residence at Castle Carrock. Both men are commemorated by a stained-glass windows in the St. Peters Church in the village.

Hanging on the wall of the main hall is a large watercolour of a large building in Mumbai (Bombay). This is the Watson's Hotel (Watson's Esplanade Hotel) soon after its completion in 1863. On the mount of the picture is an inscription written by JP Watson: “This building was designed in London for John Watson of Gelt Hall by Messrs Ordish and Le Febre.” Click here to find out more.

The Watson Institute is now a Grade II listed building and is used as the village hall for the local community.

Information

The hall is the focal point for village life and in addition to regular groups, it’s used by the school, church, parish council, and various other organisations for meetings, presentations and fundraising events. There are lots of regular weekly events in the hall - find out more here. The historic main hall with air conditioning and modern kitchen provides a warm and welcoming environment for a wide variety of functions; be it parties, concerts or community events.

Booking

The hall is available to book at an hourly rate inclusive of heating and electricity costs. For further details and bookings please contact Jenny Thomson on 01228 670768 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..